Friday, September 21, 2007

O.J. Goes to Vegas, Tabloid Media Circus Breaks Out


I funny thing happened when I woke up Tuesday morning and switched on the Today show. The year 1994 broke out all over again. Hillary Clinton was on TV talking about reforming our health care system and O.J. Simpson was back in jail.

Of course the stories weren’t reported in that order. O.J. got top billing. His story not only took precedence over Hillary, he also beat out the war in Iraq and Bush’s nomination of a new Attorney General.

In other words, even if he didn't steal the loot he sure stole the headlines.

Hillary failed in her first attempt to reform health care and beating a double-murder rap has apparently failed to reform O.J.

O.J. is the T.V. legal analysts full employment act. Where did NBC send their chief legal correspondent Dan Abrams to report from, the capitol in D.C. to pontificate on the chances of the nomination of Michael Mukasey making it through the Senate or to Las Vegas to dish on whether the police finally got the goods on O.J.? You guessed it, Vegas baby!

In town to serve as the best man in a friend’s wedding, it turns out that O.J.’s idea of a bachelor party is to pull a stick-up. Whatever happened to going to a strip club?

Unable to make bail, O.J. has found out that the ad campaign is true. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

You’re probably thinking that while people elsewhere in the country may be fascinated with two-bit crime stories, we here in Santa Barbara are definitely more highbrow. Think again.

The Daily Sound's website posts selected stories and allows readers to comment on them. So what article has been the most commented on, the News-Press mess, the upcoming city council elections, the lightblueline project?

Actually it’s the story about the Double Trouble Twins that has garnered a record 84 reader comments in a little over a week. No other story is even close.

As reported in the Daily Sound and elsewhere, the Double Trouble Twins are 24-year-old identical twin sisters who were arrested for burglarizing a home in the 2000 block of State Street on multiple occasions.

According to comments on the Daily Sound website, they both attended school at UCSB sometime in the past and both graduated from a Jesuit high school, St. Ignatius in San Francisco and come from a privileged family to boot.

They also seem to have pretty good taste when you consider that among the items they are alleged to have stolen are a pearl necklace with a distinctive clasp and a Chanel sunglasses case.

Well at least in Santa Barbara we like “high class” criminals. Given the attention being paid to O.J., can’t say the same for the way the rest of the country.

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